WINDHOEK, South African Minister of International Relations and Co-operation Maite Nkoana-Mashabane says her country and Namibia are working on enhancing bilateral trade.

Nkoana-Mashabane, visiting Namibia in her capacity as Special Envoy of President Jacob Zuma, delivered a message to President Hage Geingob at State House here Thursday.

Speaking to the media after a closed-door meeting with Geingob, she said the message focused on strengthening relations between the two countries. "We are looking at specific projects which both presidents (Geingob and Zuma) refer to as joint exploration, exploitation and beneficiation of our own resources," she said.

Nkoana-Mashabane added that both Geingob and Zuma wanted to see progress in the projects. "Then we can talk about how we can accelerate trade," she said.

She also raised concerns that levels of consumerism are increasing, but are not equaled by the zeal and zest of youth to go into the productive sector as job creators and not as job-seekers.

The minister also delivered a note on the Double Troika Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) which was held in Gaborone, Botswana, on June28, 2016, to receive a progress report on the implementation of SADC decisions in relation to the political situation in the Kingdom of Lesotho.

"Lesotho is going through another election on June 3, 2017, so we needed to exchange notes on that," she said, adding that President Zuma sent her to Windhoed to be appraised by President Geingob on how we can work on African unity. She said Geingob gave her a copy of a report of the Fourth Consultative Summit of the African Union Committee of Ten Heads of State that was held in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, on May 16 and 17, 2017, to deliver to Zuma.